SPATIO-TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMUNITIES OF AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES ON THE CIS-ALTAI PLAIN
ПРОСТРАНСТВЕННО-ТИПОЛОГИЧЕСКАЯ СТРУКТУРА И ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯ НАСЕЛЕНИЯ ЗЕМНОВОДНЫХ И ПРЕСМЫКАЮЩИХСЯ ПРЕДАЛТАЙСКОЙ РАВНИНЫ
Makarov A.V. Bochkareva E.N. Sergazinova Z.M.
2022Izdatelstvo Nauka
Zoologicheskii Zhurnal
2022#101Issue 5541 - 555 pp.
Based on material collected in 1998, 2002 and 2014 to 2016, spatial changes in the population densities and species richness of amphibians and reptiles in the Cis-Altais were described. The spatio-typological structures of their populations were identified and analyzed, and the strength of the heterogeneity of their communities in relation to the main structure-forming factors of the environment was estimated. Over the territory of the Cis-Altai Plain, three species of amphibians and four species of reptiles were identified during the research time: the Common toad (Bufo bufo), the Moor frog (Rana arvalis), the Lake frog (Pelophilax ridibundus), the Sand lizard (Lacerta agilis), the Common lizard (Zootoca vivipara), the Grass snake (Natrix natrix), and the Common northern viper (Vipera berus). In the communities of amphibians, the Moor frog absolutely pre-dominated (93%), the shares of the Common toad and the Lake frog being significantly lower, while in the reptile communities, the Sand lizard and the Common lizard prevailed (48 and 46%, respectively). The amphibians and reptiles were shown to be distributed unevenly across the territory, and their greatest abundance and species richness were characteristic of the forested steppe part of the Cis-Altai Plain. In the steppe part of the plain, due to the larger areas taken up by steppe and plowed landscapes, there were much fewer am-phibians, and their distributions were local in character. Taking into account all age groups, the density of the amphibian communities reached the highest values near the breeding water bodies and did not depend on specific landscape environments. Discarding the youngsters, the highest total abundance of amphibians was characteristic of lowland bogs, floodplain habitats, and relatively humid small-leaved forests. With a decrease in the moisture content and food capacity of the habitats, as well as with an increase in anthropogenic trans-formations of landscapes, the numbers and species richness of amphibians decreased. The densities of reptile communities were the maximum in forested habitats; moreover, most of them occurred in humid small-leaved and birch-pine forests, being lesser in other habitats. A decreased afforestation and an increase in bog areas and flooding high waters led to a reduced total abundance of reptiles in field habitats, lowland swamps and floodplains. In the more dry steppes, there were much fewer reptiles, with plowing their total abundance being decreased to the minimum. The heterogeneity of the amphibian communities was revealed to be influ-enced to a greater extent by such factors as the moisture content, food capacity of the habitats, and nature zonation, being somewhat less important for the reptiles. The distributions of the reptiles were mostly affected by anthropogenic factors, livestock grazing in particular; in addition, the roles played by afforestation and the composition of forest-forming species were found noticeably increased.
abundance , Altai Mountain Region , distribution , environmental factors , spatial heterogeneity , structural graph
Text of the article Перейти на текст статьи
Institute for the Systematics and Ecology of Animals, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630091, Russian Federation
S. Toraigyrov Pavlodar State University, Pavlodar, 140008, Kazakhstan
Institute for the Systematics and Ecology of Animals
S. Toraigyrov Pavlodar State University
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026